Two CDs representing two extended improvisations of the IKB Ensemble with slightly different personnel, with each ensemble slowly unfolding an amazingly textured work of acoustics and electronics with strong intent and incredible technique, balanced by close listening and attention to detail; an excellent 21st century improvisation orchestra captured live.

"I finally managed to listen to the missing item of a sort of trilogy/tetralogy that IKB Ensemble, a copious ensemble of improvisers grouped by Ernesto Rodrigues, performed between 2012 and 2014. This one, named after the so-called dragon-tree (many of you maybe saw them in the Canary Islands), includes two sessions held in the same place - St.George's Church in Lisbon, the only Anglican one in the Portuguese capital city - in two different moments.

Each CD includes the recording of those improv sessions - the first occurring on 13th October 2012, the second on 9th November 2014 -, performed by slightly different musicians. As for the releases I already introduced signed by IKB ("Monochrome Bleu Sans Titre" and "Rhinoceros"), it's better to highlight the fact that the number of involved musicians could be a somehow misleading piece of information, as their sound is other than a bulky instrumental condensate.

The line-up somehow affects the sound of each session, as you'll notice the one recorded in 2014 tend to be more electroacoustic (featuring in details and in no particular order: Maria Radich's voice, Armando Pereira on accordion, Paulo Curado on flute, Eduardo Chagas on trombone, Yaw Tembe on trumpet, Nuno Torres on alto saxophone, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, Bruno Parrinha on alto clarinet, Rodrigo Pinheiro on organ, Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Miguel Mira on double bass, Jose Oliveira on acoustic guitar, Nuno Morao on percussions, Gil Goncalves on tuba and flugabone, Carlos Santos manoeuvring a computer, Abdul Moimeme on electric guitar, Marian Yanchyk on violin and Joao Silva on a Feng Gong and Tibetan bells), while the blend of piercing pure radio frequencies and the dizzying dissonances of the session recorded in 2012 has a more "electronic" approach (there were more or less the same musicians involved in that session, but there were also Paulo Raposo on radio-driven electronics, Christian Wolfarth on cymbals, a wider set of percussions and percussionists, Ricardo Guerreiro siding Carlos Santos on computers and Ernesto Rodrigues performed on harp instead of viola).

There could be some analogy with the mentioned tree: both the session seems to proceed very slowly (just like the growth of a Dracaena Draco or only drago -!-), the instrumental elements appears to group in a seemingly nervous tangle (close to the intricate web of lower branches of that tree) and the general atmosphere of the sessions evokes something in between mysterious and sinister (many alchemists and magicians looked for that tree, whose red sticky resin was so red and dense that was apparently referred as "the blood of a dragon"!).'-Vito Camarretta, Chain DLK